Rightwise: Time to recycle an old English word?

Anyone who has studied New Testament translation, the writings of Paul in particular, and especially the Letters to the Romans and Galatians, will know that the δικαιοσύνη (dikaiosune) word group is crucial to a correct understanding of these key New Testament documents. The dikaiosune word group is usually translated as “righteousness” or “justice” and similar forms.

The problem in English is that there is no single word group that covers both the quality of being “righteous” and the act of declaring someone righteous. Therefore, English translations are forced to use words from two different roots to cover all the usages:

Noun – righteousness ("justice" has a rather different connotation in English though it can also be used.)
Adjective – righteous ("just" is also possible, but has the same issues of wrong connotation and can also be confused with “just” as in “only”)
Adverb – righteously ("justly" is also possible, but has the same issues of wrong connotation)

The big problem is with the verb forms. English has to use compound verbs as there is no verb “to righteous” (although New Testament scholar E. P. Sanders has suggested we just use “righteous” as a verb). Perhaps we should use an invented word like “to enrighen"? So we have to say “to make righteous” or “to declare righteous.” More often, translations turn instead to the “just—” word group for the verbs and associated forms because no standard “right—” forms exist:

Verb – to justify
Actor – justifier
Process/Event – justification

These words can be confusing since "justify" now tends to be used in the sense of something I do to excuse myself from blame rather than something someone says about me. Using both righteous/justify can also result in cross-references and relationships between words being missed in English translations.

Instead of inventing a new word, we could overcome this problem by resurrecting the old English word “rightwise.” Rightwise was used in Wycliffe’s English translation (the very first in English in the 14th century). This is easy word to understand—it sounds like it means “to be in a right relationship” ("I am rightwise before God") or “to declare to be in the right” ("God rightwises sinners because of Christ's atoning work"). It is easy to say. And it avoids any mistaken ideas about "righteous" (which tends to sound like "self-righteous" to the average person).

Most significantly, it can be grammatically used in all situations where the dikaiosune group of words is used in Greek (and the tsedeq group of words in Hebrew too for that matter).

Noun – rightwiseness
Adjective – rightwise
Adverb – rightwise
Verbs – to rightwise (participle: rightwised; gerund: rightwising) or "to be rightwised"
Actor – rightwiser
Process/Event – rightwising

Consider the difference if we compare a couple of key Pauline passages in standard translations and then using my suggested translation: 

Romans 2:13 (ESV): For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

Romans 2:13 (“Rightwise” translation): For it is not the hearers of the law who are rightwise before God, but the doers of the law who will be rightwised. 

Romans 3:21–31 (ESV): ²¹But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— ²² the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵ whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. ²⁶ It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. ²⁷ Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. ²⁸ For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 

Romans 3:21–28 (“Rightwise” translation): ²¹But now the rightwiseness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— ²² the rightwiseness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and are rightwised by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵ whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s rightwiseness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. ²⁶ It was to show his rightwiseness at the present time, so that he might be rightwise and the rightwiser of the one who has faith in Jesus. ²⁷ Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. ²⁸ For we hold that one is rightwised by faith apart from works of the law. 

Romans 4:5 (ESV): And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. 

Romans 4:5 (“Rightwise” translation): And to the one who does not work but believes in him who rightwises the ungodly, his faith is counted as rightwiseness.

Romans 4:22–25 (ESV): ²²That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness”. ²³But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, ²⁴but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, ²⁵who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

Romans 4:22–25 (“Rightwise” translation): ²²That is why his faith was “counted to him as rightwiseness”. ²³But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, ²⁴but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, ²⁵who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our rightwising.

Galatians 3:11 (ESV): Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” 

Galatians 3:11 (“Rightwise” translation): Now it is evident that no one is rightwised before God by the law, for “The rightwise shall live by faith.”

Though the terminology may jar the eye and the ear to begin with, I think we would quickly get used to "rightwise". At the very least, when teaching on Paul, it would give us a way of getting at the original Greek better than current English translations allow.

Actually a similar translational problem exists between the English nouns usually translated “faith” or “faithfulness” and the verb forms usually translated “to believe” even though “to believe” something is not exactly the same as “to have faith in” something. Nor can the noun “belief” simply be substituted for “faith” without confusion and loss of meaning. Perhaps we will return to that topic when I find an old English word that covers both “faith” and “to believe”!